No it's not science fiction! It's not fiction at all. I recently read and enjoyed One Summer: America 1927 by Bill Bryson.
This was like a literary time machine! I had read a couple of Bryson's books but they were not about a period of time. This was an amazing deep dive into life before television, computers, the internet, or so many other things we take for granted. Even radio was really just getting started.
Bryson focuses on the summer of 1927, especially on Charles Lindburgh's solo flight across the Atlantic, Babe Ruth's career, boxing, baseball, politics, and some events I had never heard of, such as a scandalous murder trial. I learned a lot, and I was entertained at the same time.
The narrative jumps around a bit; I did wish the publisher had enabled the Kindle's X-Ray feature because people would be described in one chapter and reappear chapters later, and I didn't always remember their details. The X-Ray feature on the Kindle is great for this kind of thing but a lot of publishers just don't care about the ebook version. The footnotes were not formatted as links, ether, which made them much less helpful because you only read them when you got to the end of the chapter. If you read the ebook version, all the illustrations are at the end, so be sure you keep paging through as they are interesting.
I don't generally read much nonfiction. I like a story, with a plot and characters I can relate to, but I loved this book!
p.s. The Kindle version is really cheap right now! Only $1.99!
This was like a literary time machine! I had read a couple of Bryson's books but they were not about a period of time. This was an amazing deep dive into life before television, computers, the internet, or so many other things we take for granted. Even radio was really just getting started.
Bryson focuses on the summer of 1927, especially on Charles Lindburgh's solo flight across the Atlantic, Babe Ruth's career, boxing, baseball, politics, and some events I had never heard of, such as a scandalous murder trial. I learned a lot, and I was entertained at the same time.
The narrative jumps around a bit; I did wish the publisher had enabled the Kindle's X-Ray feature because people would be described in one chapter and reappear chapters later, and I didn't always remember their details. The X-Ray feature on the Kindle is great for this kind of thing but a lot of publishers just don't care about the ebook version. The footnotes were not formatted as links, ether, which made them much less helpful because you only read them when you got to the end of the chapter. If you read the ebook version, all the illustrations are at the end, so be sure you keep paging through as they are interesting.
I don't generally read much nonfiction. I like a story, with a plot and characters I can relate to, but I loved this book!
p.s. The Kindle version is really cheap right now! Only $1.99!
